National Sovereignty Day
It’s a newly declared holiday in Iraq, and a new day as US troops pull out of the cities. Except to the extent they’ll need to be running around the cities training and advising Iraqi troops, and conducting hits on terrorists in the cities and out of them. Which sounds like a wide-open door you could fit a lot of troops through.
Noticed last night in the AP coverage a couple of things were missing. “George Bush” and “Surge,” which are directly responsible for the improvements in Iraq … no more Saddam and markedly better behavior among Iraq’s ethnic and political divisions. We’ll never know … or maybe we will yet find out … but I’d suggest the bloodshed, turmoil and interference by al Qaeda, Syria and Iran that Iraqis experienced have been considerably less than they would have experienced on the road to democracy and civil society without a U.S. presence.
No mention of “Saddam,” either, now that I think of it. One other phrase that I’ve noticed missing since about November or so from the AP coverage. “George Bush’s deeply unpopular war” and variations on the theme. Four American soldiers were killed in Iraq yesterday, but if no one could find a good excuse to bring up George Bush, Obama also gets a pass in every article I’ve read. Not his war, not his problem. I’m guessing they won’t be the last Americans to give their lives for Iraqi freedom, and the resulting gains in Middle East democracy and the world’s security.
None of that in this NYT story or this Washington Post one, either. It’s almost like Saddam self-deposed, Iraqi democracy and security just kind of happened, and the pullout negotiated itself. For such a historic day, the scribblers seem to be ignoring a lot of history. It’s like no one wants to talk about it anymore. Too bad. A great accomplishment, at tremendous sacrifice by both Americans, Iraqis and their British, Australian, European and Asian allies. Congratulations, Iraq. All yours now. Until and unless you need a little more help. Hopefully we’ll have an American president who is willing to help.
Omar at Iraq the Model, a Baghdadi who kept his faith through the darkest days, doesn’t have anything new up today, but here’s his June 1 post: “Iraq was a Just War.”
Nothing new from Days of My Life, where Sunshine’s latest is an update on her exams, June 9.
Poor media. Can’t get a break from anyone. It’s a Huffposter complaining that media failed to notice Obama hasn’t entirely abandoned Iraq.
Mudville, “Euphrates ain’t just a river in Baghdad,” notes 130,000 will still be there, notes the lefty complaints. Talk about denial. Euphrates ain’t a river in Baghdad at all. Tigris is. MG’s Dawn Patrol has a good on-the-ground roundup, as usual.
Blackfive questions the strategic soundness of a one-day-fits-all pullout. Outside The Beltway notes there’s pullouts and then ther’s pullouts. Danger Room notes “pullout from the cities” doesn’t mean “end to combat missions.”
Allah at HotAir gives Obama props for being big about it. He’s more charitable than I am. I’m not even interested in watching vid of Obama, now in office, being forced by reality to praise everything he disparaged.
And here’s the best wishes and prayers of Acute Politics, the GI combat engineer poet laureate. Don’t know Gordon Alanko? In his time, he was the best American combat writer on the ground in Iraq. He gave a year, three friends, some innocence and, like everyone else who has lived through it, a lot of peace of mind to this.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 1:29 pm on Tuesday, June 30, 2009
One Response to “National Sovereignty Day”
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June 30th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
It is amazing how all that stuff just kinda happened on its own, isn’t it? It’s even more amazing that the best surge reporting came via independents and soldier bloggers.
Which reminds me of this picture, courtesy of Michael Totten:
http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/images/Stabbing%20the%20Hydra%20Ramadi.jpg
This drawing by an Iraqi child depicts the American-Iraqi alliance against Al Qaeda. Notice the sword is Iraqi and the muscle is American.
Yeah. Iraqi child gets it. AP? NYT? WaPo? Not so much.